


While You Can

by walk_in_sunshine



Category: Redwall Series - Brian Jacques
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 12:04:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11759472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walk_in_sunshine/pseuds/walk_in_sunshine
Summary: Week Two. Regret (or lacktherof). "A minute's hatred is sixty seconds of lost happiness, young hog. Smile while you can."





	While You Can

It didn't seem right- it wasn't right, he knew- to hate something so small. To hate something that knew so little of the world.

_Not that I know any more than he._

The babe grunted and shifted in its blankets. The proud mother drew it back with a scowl, but the young hedgehog's expression didn't change. At this point, Pallum wasn't sure if he was smiling or not. He wasn't sure what a smile was anymore.

_You shouldn't hate him so._

_He's only a child._

_Smile, m' darling Pallum, smile!_

_It's wrong._

But far more wrong to forgive, when two log hobbles like his own were gathering dust.

His spikes prickled. The high chief watched him- Gunja, or Dine, or whatever he might have been called. Pallum couldn't quite remember. He was High Chief Short Sword, father to some other future sword, a tiny creature with baleful eyes and hate in his blood.

"You see-a squidgee? My squidgee! Bigg'aportance, spikemouse. Watch'um good."

The infant shrewlet fell into his paws after a harsh shove, and Pallum choked on a rage that tasted like bile in his throat. His paws trembled. The pygmy rulers interpreted it as reverence and turned to walk paw-in-paw down the strand to watch their creatures fish nets from the shallows.

_Smile, Pallum,_ the voice echoed in his head.

He couldn't remember the owner. Only that it was female. And gentle. And it had quieted one night in the bleak of winter when he was a young hog, and he woke cold and alone in the darkness with nothing but the hobble-log and the faint scent of a beast long gone.

_A minute's hatred is sixty seconds of lost happiness, young hog,_ he had to remind himself when the squidgee's eyes opened and a tubby paw snatched at his whiskers. _Smile while you can._

Pallum fixed his smile. Baby Dinjer didn't quite know what to make of the expression. The hedgehog raised his eyes from the infant- and the choking anger simmered, but no longer burned. The High Chief left his wife in the shallows and strode along the shoreline.

Great white wings shadowed him.

Pallum didn't call a warning.

_He smiled, while the tribe mourned. He only smiled, and the tribe didn't know what to do with him. He smiled: because Amballa's brat was not the only orphan on the cliffside, and he couldn't afford to lose another moment's happiness._


End file.
